How's the seafood on Carnival?

[lovesublime]

Our first cruise on Carnival coming up. We're taking Spirit for our second cruise to Alaska. I've read plenty on here that Carnival has good food (one of the reasons we booked Carnival this time), but I'm wondering about quality and preparation of the seafood onboard. DH and I are huge seafood lovers. We especially love lobster, shrimp, snapper, sea bass, and CRAB! In fact, I made crab cakes for dinner tonight:) I consider myself to be a dang good seafood cook and I hope for some honest opinions here. If we can't get our fix onboard the ship, I'll begin investigating ports of call restaurants. Thanks for your input!

[EngIceDave]

I enjoy well prepared food, especially seafood, and I would say Carnival has very good food.

It is not gourmet, it is not adventerous, it is not hand prep single service plating.

That said, it is usually well done and looks excellent.

Best thing is, if for some reason your dish is not to your liking, order something else, no problem.

If it is to your liking, order more, no problem

 

Lastly, if you consider yourself a food snob, I am sure you could find faults in any dish

[grneyedmustang]

I love the seafood on Carnival, especially the shrimp cocktail (ordered one every night!), the shrimp tempura, the sweet & sour shrimp, the crab cakes, and of course the grilled shrimp/lobster combo on formal night.

 

I'm gonna miss lobster night on Royal Carribean (*sniff sniff)...:(

 

And I agree with everything EngIceDave said...

[Fazzdaan]

I'm not a fish-fish guy, but I do like shellfish and scallops. The lobster last year was pretty good, but not eye-popping. However, I had a crab cake appetizer in the supper club that knocked my socks off. I also did have a shrimp dish which was quite good.

 

My wife recalls an excellent salmon and she liked her lobster better than I did and rated it excellent.

 

I strongly suggest that you spend one night in the supper club. The $30.00 upcharge, which includes the tip, is money well spent.

[dan40]

Compared to most land restaurants that do NOT specialize in fresh seafood, Carnival is OK. They do not have a wide selection of seafood, but what they have is not bad. Compared to a really good seafood specialty restaurant, Carnival sucks as most places do. But that is apples and oranges because cruise ships are not seafood restaurants. No crab and the lobster is not whole Maine lobsters. It is frozen tails of tropical clawless lobsters. Many do love it, but its not the Maine bug. The Conquest class has a fish n chips place one deck above the buffet. The breaded fried selections are Long John Silvers at best.

I'm making it sound worse than it is. Its just NOT a famous seafood house and doesn't try to be.

 

Dan

[EngIceDave]

Agreed on the supper club

 

That is single serv hand prep food.

I had an excellent Dover Sole on Valor a year or so ago.

The supper club's are real close to fine gourmet food prep.

[MonaCK]

we were served bad lobster in the supper club, so your miledge may vary...

[jerchele]

Highly recommend the Supper Club for fish/seafood - well worth the surcharge.

[DEcruiser1]

I also agree on the supper club. I had a really good seafood meal on Pride last summer.

[dclark]

Seafood? Fair to not so good. There are some good shrimp dishes, but every fish we've order was covered with some nasty sauce that we had to scrape off and even then, the fish was so-so, like what we would get in one of our NV buffets.

If you like seafood, the best I have had was on Princess.They have a crab leg night, great scallops, shrimp, heck, two years ago, I had an excellent broiled swordfish steak.I have generally been happy with their beef items and I think that if someone were a seafood hater/beef lover, they wouldn't be happy with Princess.It has been two years since I have been on a CCL ship so my opinion might be outdated. I remember the lobster from all m CCL in the past to be pretty good, the fish from the fish and chips place to be a bit greasy and the supper clubs to be excellent.I'll find out next week what has changed .

One thing that I wished CCL had was a good white clam chowder.

[Steve H]

I had some very good sea bass on the Spirit last year.

[gazingm42]

I am a huge seafood type of guy.

 

They have a great sweet and sour large shrimp they serve which is

great.

 

They also have thin sliced smoked salmon in the deli every day on the lido

deck, plus room service. They serve it on a bagel, cream chease and onion.

I get my fill on it while on board every cruise. I learn to order it with out

the bagel ... :)

 

I not a huge fan on lobster, but hear its good. We also have had great

good salmon and sea bass at diner.

 

Enjoy.

[AAAAmerican]

Youall maam

are going again as you know this is your second time to AK.

 

That it is like no other place on this earth.

 

Are you and your DH fish too?

 

If your going in the Salmon Season there are probably at peak 6-8 varieties.

 

Catching then cleaning them and bringing a few back aboard is not just the envy of every passenger and crew member ..but ask the Chef before youall go fishing to prepare your catch fish and crabs when you return .. they will usually do this ...

 

That will be the best fish seafood aboard the ship too.

 

Carnival in most of there Cruise Lines does freeze the Fish and Seafood first.. yes not fresh.

 

So having to eat your catch ans=d sharing some will be a great benefit to all.

 

Also meeting the Chef that is a great way to find new preparations coming soon..

 

 

Enjoy your Cruise and tell everyone the news!:cool:

 

PS: Yes I so appreciate and enjoy Real Maine Lobster and Alaska King/Snow Crab!

 

 

 

Our first cruise on Carnival coming up. We're taking Spirit for our second cruise to Alaska. I've read plenty on here that Carnival has good food (one of the reasons we booked Carnival this time), but I'm wondering about quality and preparation of the seafood onboard. DH and I are huge seafood lovers. We especially love lobster, shrimp, snapper, sea bass, and CRAB! In fact, I made crab cakes for dinner tonight:) I consider myself to be a dang good seafood cook and I hope for some honest opinions here. If we can't get our fix onboard the ship, I'll begin investigating ports of call restaurants. Thanks for your input!

[DiveCruiser]

Went on the Holiday last month and it was GREAT! Had shrimp every night (6 - 7) as apps and Captains night well they had the best lobster ever.

 

Bob

[Can'tWait2SetSail]

I usually am not a fan of lobster tails, they tend to be small and dried out, but on the Liberty I had a huge, tender delicious tail! I was pleasantly surprised. I had shrimp cocktail as well, while they weren't huge shrimp, they were fine. I also had the crabcakes which were very tasty. I did not personally try any of the fish, but my friend had the tilapia and salmon and said it was very good.

[pungo3]

All of the seafood I've had on Carnival ships has been very good. Some of it was excellent. In fact, I've never had a bad meal on a Carnival ship.:D

[Rockee4055]

I think I had some type of seafood each and every night. I enjoyed all of it.

 

I was telling the waiter one night how much I loved shrimp and whenever possible it was there for me, right in front of my eyes.

 

The lobster on formal night in the past was okay, not great but okay, The last cruise in april it was fantastic, better then I ever remembered it.

[anaslile]

Good, I see lots of food on Carnival. ;) :p

 

 

That being said, I've liked the fish I've had, it's nothing compared to fresh off the docks, and is frozen but it's good. The lobster in the dining room seems to be hit or miss. I've enjoyed the seafood I've had.

[Hebejeebe]

I don't eat lobster but DW claims that the lobster on Princess is better (Carnival's was dried out on our cruises). However, I've had great luck with the fish on Carnival. As you can see from the previous postings your experience may vary. I've found some of the fish dishes to be comparable to those available in fish specialty restaurants in the DC area. Unless you are in an area where the fish comes straight off the boat to the local restaunt you are eating frozen fish. Flash frozen maybe but it's still frozen.

[Ehpride]

In the buffett at embarkation, look for the rice with scallops. It's delicious!

 

I love seafood and I've never had a complaint. My mom wasn't crazy about the grouper dish but that's more a complaint about that particular kind of fish than the way they prepared it because neither one of us has ever had good grouper for some reason. Lobster has always been good and I love the shrimp cocktail and salmon dishes. I also tasted mom's crab cakes and they were delicious!

[lovesublime]

Thanks everyone! It looks like we have something to look forward to. We definitely are going to try the Supper Club and probably more than once. Now, I am extremely curious about what AAAAmerican wrote-we can actually catch our own fish and have the chef aboard prepare it for us? Has anyone done this?

[illeniumsd]

You want fresh seafood? Check this out. This is about as fresh of seafood you can find on a cruise.

 

This was aboard the Carnival Triumph a few months back.

 

 

 

You can read the entire report here

[DGP1111]

Yep, that's about as fresh as it gets. Wow.

[Drew B]

Thanks everyone! It looks like we have something to look forward to. We definitely are going to try the Supper Club and probably more than once. Now, I am extremely curious about what AAAAmerican wrote-we can actually catch our own fish and have the chef aboard prepare it for us? Has anyone done this?

 

I would love to have confirmation on this. I don't believe it's true. I know with other lines, if you catch fish on an excursion, they will ship your catch to your home because you are NOT PERMITTED to bring it aboard. I would assume the same is true of Carnival...